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Rat Queens Gets Collected in March

In the game of royalty, there are kings and queens, princes and princesses. In the game of rat royalty, there are only Rat Queens. Image Comics has told tales of said rodent royalty and now those tales are being collected in a trade paperback. The only catch is that they're not really "rats" per se; just a group of high fantasy heroines who handle all sorts of business. The Kurtis J. Wiebe/Roc Upchurch collaboration that follows Hannah the Rockabilly Elven Mage, Violet the Hipster Dwarven Fighter, Dee the Atheist Human Cleric and Betty the Hippy Smidgen will hit shelves on March 26.

The Queens embark on a quest of rare importance, promising fame and fortune should they succeed in this most dangerous of — OK, so they have to clear some goblins out of a cave. But things take a surprising turn, and the Queens are going to have to use their wits and weapons to uncover a plot on their lives. This paperback volume of the series collects the first five issues, with a cover by Fiona Staples.

The book hits comic stores March 26 and bookstores on April 8. Full press release below.

HIGH FANTASY, BOOZE, BRAWLS, AND BLOOD IN RAT QUEENS

New Image Comics comedy adventure gets collected in March

You’ve never seen high fantasy heroines like the Rat Queens before. Hannah the Rockabilly Elven Mage, Violet the Hipster Dwarven Fighter, Dee the Atheist Human Cleric, and Betty the Hippy Smidgen are foul-mouthed, gleefully blood-spattered, prone to fits of indiscriminate property damage, and often intoxicated. They’re the stars of the hit Image Comics/Shadowline comic book series RAT QUEENS, and they’re best f*cking mercenary team in all of Palisade. So why does someone want them dead? Wait, don’t answer that.

Better than any bard’s song of triumph in battle, RAT QUEENS VOLUME ONE: SASS AND SORCERY by Kurtis J. Wiebe (PETER PANZERFAUST) and Roc Upchurch (VESCELL) will be hitting (and we do mean hitting) store shelves in March. The Queens embark on a quest of rare importance, promising fame and fortune should they succeed in this most dangerous of — OK, so they have to clear some goblins out of a cave. But things take a surprising turn, and the Queens are going to have to use their wits and weapons to uncover a plot on their lives.

RAT QUEENS rocketed to cult status when its first issue appeared in September 2013 and went on to win IGN's coveted Best New Series of the year. This paperback volume of the series collects the first five issues, with a cover by Fiona Staples (SAGA). RAT QUEENS VOLUME ONE is available for pre-order now and a five-page preview is on Image Comics’ website. Readers who like their swords bloody and their sorcery sarcastic won’t want to miss out on this hot new title.

“Look, I don't care if you have a job or not. Sell your things, sell your plasma, do whatever you have to do to buy Rat Queens. Give your money to this comic and give it hard…. It's funny, heartwarming and filled with bloody action. Seriously, this is one of the best comic books being published right now. You're a fool to not buy it. Stop being a fool. Your parents raised you better.”
—Benjamin Bailey, IGN

“Told with plenty of gentle nudges toward classic fantasy games and even more swearing, guts, and booze, this is a purely fun and very adult take on the genre.”
—Arielle Yarwood, Bitch Magazine

“I have a new favorite fantasy comic, and it's Kurtis J. Wiebe and Roc Upchurch's Rat Queens. Don't let the strange name fool you; it's a book full of violence, mayhem, friendship, secrets, and monsters. Oh, and one of the more charmingly dysfunctional groups of warriors you've seen in a while.”
—Greg McElhatton, Comic Book Resources

“The characters created by Wiebe and Upchurch bring the series to life. With all the glamour and stage presence of an all girl rock group, the Rat Queens fill up every iota of the spotlight. Each woman is strong in her own right, and has a unique and well articulated personality.”
—Sam LeBas, Multiversity Comics

“Rat Queens is destined for comic book greatness, and knows how to sink its bloodthirsty hooks into the growing fandom without succumbing to the over-exhausted and widely problematic tropes prevalent in most Fantasy fiction and art today. This cannot be stressed enough: Rat Queens is fantastic, and you should be reading it.”
—ShadowJayd, Bloody Disgusting

“Rat Queens is that rare comic that: 1) features a mostly female leading cast and 2) manages to let those leading women be feisty and foul mouthed without simply being ‘dudes with boobs’ or flattened out into one-dimensional ‘bitch stereotypes.’”
—Lela Gwenn, Women Write About Comics

ABOUT IMAGE COMICS
Image Comics is a comic book and graphic novel publisher founded in 1992 by a collective of best-selling artists. Image has since gone on to become one of the largest comics publishers in the United States. Image currently has five partners: Robert Kirkman, Erik Larsen, Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri and Jim Valentino. It consists of five major houses: Todd McFarlane Productions, Top Cow Productions, Shadowline, Skybound and Image Central. Image publishes comics and graphic novels in nearly every genre, sub-genre, and style imaginable. It offers science fiction, fantasy, romance, horror, crime fiction, historical fiction, humor and more by the finest artists and writers working in the medium today. For more information, visit www.imagecomics.com.